"Stephen Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate Stephen Michael Wedgwood Benn, 3rd Viscount Stansgate (born 21 August 1951), is Director of Parliamentary Affairs for the Royal Society of Biology and a Vice-President of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. His father, Tony Benn, and younger brother, Hilary Benn, have both been senior Labour politicians. His mother was Caroline Benn and his sister is Melissa Benn, a feminist writer. He is a graduate of Keele University. He was an elected Member of the Inner London Education Authority from 1986 to 1990. Benn has a daughter, Emily, born in 1989, and a son, Daniel John"
"in the law. In 1960, the 1st Viscount died and Tony Benn inherited the title, automatically losing his seat in the House of Commons as a member for the constituency of Bristol South East. In the ensuing by-election, however, Benn was re-elected to the Commons, despite being disqualified. An election court ruled that he could not take his seat, instead awarding it to the runner-up, the Conservative Malcolm St Clair. In 1963, the Conservative Government agreed to introduce a Peerage Bill, allowing individuals to disclaim peerages; it received Royal Assent on 31 July 1963. Tony Benn was the first peer"
"Tony Benn. The latter disclaimed the peerage on 31 July 1963, the day the Peerage Act 1963 passed into law and made it possible for him to do so. , the title is held by Tony Benn's eldest son Stephen as third Viscount. As a descendant of the first Benn Baronet of The Old Knoll, he is also in remainder to this title. Stansgate is a hamlet near the village of Steeple, Essex, on the southern side of the River Blackwater estuary. The village has been home to several generations of the Benn family since about 1900. They live in"
"presumptive to a peerage. Benn continued his campaign outside Parliament. Within two years, though, the Conservative Government of the time, which had members in the same or similar situation to Benn's (i.e., who were going to receive title, or who had already applied for writs of summons), changed the law. The Peerage Act 1963, allowing lifetime disclaimer of peerages, became law shortly after 6 pm on 31 July 1963. Benn was the first peer to renounce his title, doing so at 6.22 pm that day. St Clair, fulfilling a promise he had made at the time of his election, then"
"and awarded the seat to St. Clair as the only duly qualified candidate. (At the time, St Clair was himself Master of Sinclair — heir-presumptive {1957–1968} to his second-cousin Charles St Clair, 17th Lord Sinclair.) Outside Parliament, Benn continued to campaign for a change in the law to allow him to disclaim his peerage and return to the Commons, and eventually the Conservative government agreed. The Peerage Act 1963, making such a change in the law, was given the Royal Assent and became law shortly after 6 p.m. on 31 July 1963. Benn was the first peer to disclaim his"
"""Who's Who"" in 1983, he was listed as ""Tony Benn"" and all references to his education or service record were removed. In 1972, Benn said in his diaries that ""Today I had the idea that I would resign my Privy Councillorship, my MA and all my honorary doctorates in order to strip myself of what the world had to offer"". While he acknowledged that he ""might be ridiculed"" for doing so, Benn said that ""'Wedgie Benn' and 'the Rt Honourable Anthony Wedgwood Benn' and all that stuff is impossible. I have been Tony Benn in Bristol for a long time."""
"nominated for peerages than other party members. Traditionally there was no mechanism by which members could resign or be removed from the House of Lords (compare the situation as regards resignation from the House of Commons). The Peerage Act 1963 permitted a person to disclaim their newly inherited peerage (within certain time limits); this meant that such a person could effectively renounce their membership of the Lords. This might be done in order to remain or become qualified to sit in the House of Commons, as in the case of Tony Benn (formerly the second Viscount Stansgate), who had campaigned"
"notice by St Clair of Benn's ineligibility. Benn's attempts to renounce his title were stated as being too technical for voters to have easily understood. As a result, St Clair was elected in place of Benn. Despite losing the court case, Benn continued to campaign to be able to renounce his peerage. The Peerage Act 1963 was passed which allowed for hereditary peers to disclaim their peerage and surrender their right to sit in the House of Lords. This act was created partially as a result of Benn's campaign but also because of the Conservative Party wishing for either Alec"
"his campaign, even though national Conservatives had called on their supporters not to vote against Benn. Benn was elected, with almost 80% of the votes cast. Martell became the first independent candidate in 17 years to hold his deposit. 1963 Bristol South East by-election The Bristol South East by-election, 1963 was a by-election held on 20 August 1963 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East in the city of Bristol. The seat had become vacant in 1961 when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Tony Benn had inherited a hereditary peerage from his father, becoming"
"was declared the winner. When the law was later changed to allow Benn to renounce his peerage, St Clair resigned his seat (by being appointed Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead), triggering the 1963 by-election. Benn won again, with nearly 80% of the votes. The Conservatives did not nominate an official candidate, the last by-election in Great Britain in which there was no Conservative candidate until the Batley and Spen by-election in 2016, and the last by-election in Great Britain where the Conservatives did not field a candidate in a held seat until the Richmond Park by-election"
"his seat to John George Burnett. He returned to parliament in 1937 when he was elected for Manchester Gorton. In 1942, Benn was raised to the peerage as Viscount Stansgate, of Stansgate in the County of Essex. Two years later he was appointed Vice President of the Allied Control Commission which was charged with reconstructing a democratic government in Italy. In 1945 he became Secretary of State for Air in Clement Attlee's Labour government, a position he held until October 1946. He then sat as a backbench Labour peer until his death fourteen years later. From 1947 to 1957, Viscount"
"accepted the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, disqualifying himself from the House (outright resignation not being possible). Benn returned to the Commons after winning a by-election on 20 August 1963. In the 1964 Government led by Harold Wilson, Benn was Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, then the UK's tallest building, and the creations of the Post Bus service and Girobank. He proposed issuing stamps without the Sovereign's head, but this met with private opposition from the Queen. Instead, the portrait was reduced to a small profile in silhouette, a format"
"his family's dairy farm at Tetbury in Gloucestershire. In 1955, he stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate at the London County Council elections, in Islington East. At the 1959 general election he stood as Conservative candidate in Bristol South East, but he lost to the sitting Labour Member of Parliament Tony Benn (then known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn), whose majority was nearly 6,000 votes. However, in November 1960 Benn's father died and Benn inherited his peerage as Viscount Stansgate, with an automatic seat in the House of Lords. This disqualified Benn from sitting in the House of Commons, triggering a"
"for a diploma in theology (DipTheol) which was validated by the University of London. Benn was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1972 and as a priest in 1973. His ordained ministry began with curacies at St Mark's New Ferry, Wirral and St Mary's Cheadle, after which he was Vicar of St James the Great, Audley, Staffordshire and finally (before his consecration to the episcopate) St Peter's Harold Wood. On 1 May 1997, Benn was consecrated a bishop. He then served as the Bishop of Lewes, an area and suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Chichester."
"which Benn won, allowing him to reclaim his seat in the House of Commons. Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election ([1961] 3 All ER 354) is a 1961 United Kingdom election court case brought about by an election petition by Malcolm St Clair against Tony Benn, the winner of the 1961 Bristol South-East by-election where Benn had won the most votes but was disqualified from taking his seat in the House of Commons as he had inherited a hereditary peerage as 2nd Viscount Stansgate. Benn argued that as he had not applied for a writ of"
"elections for, the other chamber, the House of Commons. When William Wedgwood Benn, Tony Benn's father, agreed to accept the Viscountcy, he ascertained that the heir apparent, his eldest son Michael, did not plan to enter the House of Commons. However, within a few years of the peerage being accepted, Michael Benn was killed in action in the Second World War. Tony Benn, his younger brother, instead became the heir to the peerage and was elected to the House of Commons in 1950. Not wishing to leave it for the other House, he campaigned through the 1950s for a change"
"his title with an uncharacteristically lacklustre performance to old rival Malinga in 1996. Benn twice attempted to take the WBO super-middleweight title from Steve Collins but failed in both attempts: losing by TKO in four in the first fight after sustaining an ankle injury. He retired following the second loss to Collins in 1996, retiring on his stool at the end of the sixth-round. After his professional boxing career, Benn became an internationally recognised DJ. He later appeared in the first series of the ITV reality TV show ""I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!"". Benn has since developed"
"Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election ([1961] 3 All ER 354) is a 1961 United Kingdom election court case brought about by an election petition by Malcolm St Clair against Tony Benn, the winner of the 1961 Bristol South-East by-election where Benn had won the most votes but was disqualified from taking his seat in the House of Commons as he had inherited a hereditary peerage as 2nd Viscount Stansgate. Benn argued that as he had not applied for a writ of summons, he was not a member of the House of Lords and that the"
"Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), originally known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn, but later as Tony Benn, was a British politician, writer, and diarist. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections and a Cabinet minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. Originally a moderate, he was identified as being on the party's hard left from the early 1980s, and was widely seen as a key proponent of democratic socialism within the party. Benn inherited"
"Leicester North East by-election, 1962. The Conservative candidate, Robin Marlar, attended a meeting they organised, but left as soon as he was invited to speak, stating that he had ""nothing but contempt"" for their plans. Despite this, the Fellowship decided not to put up a candidate. In early 1963, Martell joined the Conservative Party, but maintained the Fellowship. The Fellowship's first candidacy was at the Bristol South East by-election, 1963. A 1961 by-election in the constituency was won by Labour Party politician Tony Benn, but he was disqualified by reason of his peerage, and the seat was instead awarded to"
"on ""RT UK"", Benn claimed that the actions of New Labour in the leadup to and aftermath of the Iraq War were such that the former Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes. Benn also claimed in 2010 that Blair had lost the ""trust of the nation"" regarding the war in Iraq. In November 2011, it was reported that Benn had moved out of his home in Holland Park Avenue, London, into a smaller flat nearby that benefited from a warden. In 2012, Benn was awarded an honorary degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. He was also"
"stamps. Martell has been described as ""an expert self-publicist"" who exercised ""a volatile influence on public opinion during periods of government unpopularity"". At the Bristol South East by-election, 1963, which followed Tony Benn's successful campaign to be allowed to give up his peerage and membership of the House of Lords, the Conservatives decided not to fight the by-election. Martell seized the chance to stand against Benn as a National Fellowship or ""independent right-wing"" candidate, and in the event was the only serious opposition to Benn's re-election. He attacked Benn for his absence from the constituency during the early stages of"
"of Britain Bill, abolishing the monarchy in favour of the United Kingdom becoming a ""democratic, federal and secular commonwealth"", a republic with a written constitution. It was read in Parliament a number of times until his retirement at the 2001 election, but never achieved a second reading. He presented an account of his proposal in ""Common Sense: A New Constitution for Britain"". In 1992, Tony Benn also received a Pipe Smoker of the Year award, claiming in his acceptance speech that ""pipe smoking stopped you going to war"". In 1991, Benn reiterated his opposition to the European Commission and highlighted"
"which Benn tried several times to renounce his right to. When his father died in 1961, Benn called the Speaker of the House of Commons to inform him of this. The Speaker told Benn that because he was now legally a peer, he was disqualified from sitting and speaking in the House of Commons. A by-election was called and Benn decided to fight it anyway. The Conservative Party candidate, Malcolm St Clair ran several adverts in local papers telling voters that there was no point in voting for Benn as he was disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons"
"who represented Greenwich in the House of Commons and also served on the London County Council. The title became extinct in 1992 on the death of his grandson, the second Baronet. The Benn Baronetcy, of Bolton Gardens in the County of London, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 26 July 1926 for Arthur Shirley Benn. He was later elevated to the peerage as Baron Glenravel. The titles became extinct on his death in 1937. The heir apparent is the present holder's only son Robert Ernest Benn (b. 1963).<br> The heir apparent's heir apparent is his only"
"he was created a baronet, of Plymouth in the County of Devon. From 1927, he was the Director of the International Chamber of Commerce. Benn lost his seat in 1929, and at the next general election in 1931 was elected for Sheffield Park, but then lost this seat in 1935. In 1936 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Glenravel, of Kensington in the County of London. He died on 13 June 1937, aged 78, without issue, when the baronetcy and barony became extinct. Arthur Shirley Benn, 1st Baron Glenravel Arthur Shirley Benn, 1st Baron Glenravel, (20 December 1858"
"candidate Malcolm St Clair was declared elected. When the law was changed to allow peerages to be renounced, St Clair resigned the seat and Benn won the Bristol South East by-election 1963. 1984 Chesterfield by-election The Chesterfield by-election, 1984 was held on 1 March 1984 for a seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to represent Chesterfield in Derbyshire. This followed the resignation of the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Eric Varley. The eventual winner, former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn (who had been ousted from parliament at the general election nine months earlier) defeated sixteen"
"of speech that he put to such excellent use unless people had been prepared to fight for it"". For the 1983 election Benn's Bristol South East constituency was abolished by boundary changes, and he lost to Michael Cocks in the selection of a candidate to stand in the new winnable seat of Bristol South. Rejecting offers from the new seat of Livingston in Scotland, Benn contested Bristol East, losing to the Conservative's Jonathan Sayeed in June 1983. In a by-election, Benn was elected as the MP for Chesterfield, the next Labour seat to fall vacant, after Eric Varley had left"
"by-election on 4 May 1961. Benn, who wished to be allowed to disclaim his peerage, defied his inability to sit in the Commons by standing at the election, and he and St Clair were the only two candidates. St Clair's campaign displayed posters near every polling station warning voters that Benn was disqualified and that any votes for him would have no effect. Benn nevertheless won the election with nearly 70% of the votes and an increased majority of over 13,000. However, an Election Court considered what to do about the result, found that Benn was disqualified from being elected,"
"the Labour Party's youngest-ever candidate when she failed to win East Worthing and Shoreham in 2010. Benn was a first cousin once removed of the actress Margaret Rutherford. Benn and his wife Caroline became vegetarian in 1970, for ethical reasons, and remained so for the rest of their lives. Benn cited the decision of his son Hilary to become vegetarian as an important factor in his own decision to adopt a vegetarian diet. Following the Second World War, Benn worked briefly as a BBC Radio producer. On 1 November 1950, he was selected to succeed Stafford Cripps as the Labour"
"title of the Labour Party manifesto for the 1964 general election; she proposed ""The New Britain"", and it eventually became ""Let's Go With Labour for the New Britain"". She supported her husband's proposals in the 1980s for Labour's leadership and direction. However, she was also able to provide constructive criticism throughout his political career, such as his 1998 ITN documentary. Benn was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 1996, having been unwell for about a year, but fought the illness for several further years. She became increasingly frail during 2000, having developed spinal metastases, and died at Charing Cross Hospital,"
"in Battersea at the 1906 general election. In 1907, he was elected to London County Council, a post he held for four years. He stood in Battersea again in January 1910. In December, he was instead elected at Plymouth. Benn moved to represent Plymouth Drake in 1918, and in the Birthday Honours that year was appointed to the Order of the British Empire as a Knight Commander (KBE). In 1921, he became the President of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, a position he held until 1923, and also became the Chair of the National Unionist Association. In 1926"
"in the ""Dictionary of Labour Biography"" by Phillip Whitehead, Greg Rosen (eds), Politicos Publishing, 2001 () and in ""Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown"", Kevin Jefferys (ed.), I.B. Tauris Publishing, 2002 (). Michael Moore dedicates his book ""Mike's Election Guide 2008"" () to Benn, with the words: ""For Tony Benn, keep teaching us"". During his final years in Parliament, Benn placed three plaques within the Houses of Parliament. Two are in a room between the Central Lobby and Strangers' Gallery that holds a permanent display about the suffragettes. The first was placed in 1995. The second was placed"